Bands of the Unpaid Dowry

Chapter 1

The stairs creaked as footsteps echoed through the slightly rowdy home of the Arthurs in a rushed manner. Millicent was the first to appear down to the living room. Her thick black hair, unlike her other friends', was long, shiny and looked healthy and her flawless dark bronze skin sang with brightened delight in the rays of the setting sun. Her usually bright and open doe-eyes were now squinted not to the unwelcomed rays of light that her brother had caused to shine through their home but to support the little crease that marred her forehead now. She held up the long dress that she wore as the last stair proved a nuisance almost tripping her in her escape. Before she could successfully grab her bag and dash out of her childhood home though, she heard her mother's voice which she had yet again unsuccessfully tried to escape since she arrived home at 1pm.

She rushed down behind her daughter speaking in a hurried tone and an eagerness that always displayed her affection toward the matter at hand.

"Aba, I'm telling you, there are not many decent men today. You have to hurry up before they are taken up by the raging women. A woman is a flower in a garden; her husband is the fence around it." Regina lifted her hands up to readjust her skirt while giving her daughter a meaningful look as if that was enough to cut her message across to her obstinate daughter. The latter's mouth had almost opened up in surprise to her mother's statement. With a click of her tongue which she managed to discreetly hide so that the older woman did not excessively berate her, she frowned even harder.

"Ma, you are the same person that also said that marriage is like a groundnut which you have to crack open in order to see what is inside. So, allow me to enjoy life and not rush into some petty things." She was glad her mother did not have a fancy for blind dates as that was not culture otherwise, she would have run from the city to another location. Millicent being coerced into marriage was not something that was always existent in her life. It started after a year after her graduation from the university, when her mother had seen her pose as a bridesmaid for almost half of her friends.

"The market would give out on you if you also do not take action to secure yours," Regina had said to her daughter in those early stages.

"Ha! Kwabena, listen to your sister eh. Petty! She called marriage a petty affair." The heated conversation was directed to the young man who had his legs propped up into the couch with a plate of fried yam in hand while watching his favorite show pretending as if nothing was ensuing next to him. His cropped black hair, which was lightly shaved at his sides with a little more mass in the mid-section evening down at the sides, gave him a mix of a gentle and handsomely deviant look. He slowly cast his smoky eyes shadowed by his long lashes on the two who stood their ground each and grinned with his teeth displayed to his mother, a way of acknowledging that he indeed had chuckled. His soul-name that had been given to represent the day he was born was rarely used, especially as he had also moved out like his sister, so it took him a while to fully focus on the direction that his name was called out from.

"Please don't mention my name. I'm a ghost." Before Regina could address him again, Millicent turned an expectant gaze to her brother who had resumed focus on the television. He had contemplated whether to move out of his current placement already fearing the impending launch of a slipper at his face for the words he had cast to his mother.

"Maxwell."

"I told you my name has changed Aba. Listen and repeat. Max!" Their challenging gazes met, and their mother had lost complete focus as her children spoke.

"Wasn't Maxwell the name you were given..." Her argument was cut short when she realized that she had to be the compliant little sister if she wanted her brother to speak in her favor.